Dungeons & Dragons

Adventure #21

The Liberation of Jahren

31

JUL/17

The duo is surrounded by Leshen, but they retreat when the duo approaches.

The Leshens show no hostility or aggression, so they continue their way on to Jahren. Along the way, they discover blight forming in shallow hollows that give off a magical aura to it. The patches are moist unlike the typical dry texture they often comprise of.

Further down towards town they come across a line of fungi that goes perpendicular in each direction. The species range from common to exotic and each grows back immediately as a different species if cut.

Stepping over it, they enter town and see a horrific sight. Seemingly every villager has been hanged at every possible elevated place including a clock tower near the town center. A small pack of wolves feasting on one of the corpses that has fallen from a rotted rope. Pickles tries talking to the wolves telling them to leave the corpse alone, they say they are starving due to a lack of wildlife and must eat on what they can to survive.

Three Leshen appear from the ground and attack the duo. While the battle goes back and forth for a long length of time, the duo finally kill the three.

They need to rest, so Zaburk conjures a mansion from his wand and they take a short rest.

When they exit, to their horror, the Touch has oozed its way out of the well and to a nearby decimated building and begins fusing the pieces together to form a creature. They notice a Leshen holding a stick towards the Touch before disappearing.

They make a break for the well in the center of the square, which is covered with blight. Zaburk keeps close eye on the surrounding area, and he sees the Leshen acting oddly by repeatedly entering the soil and resurfacing. Meanwhile, another pack of wolves is feasting on yet another corpse that has fallen. This time, he can see that the wolves have a side effect from eating the bodies: they're forming bulbous growths around their muzzle.

Pickles notices there are a lot of bones at the base of the well. When they see the Touch has formed the debris of the house into another Leshen, they attack it and kill it. Using the Fly spell, Pickles takes Zaburk into the well, avoiding the blight, to take a closer look.

Inside what would be the water cavern are 3 ooze-like eggs that shimmer like liquid. In another corner is a nest of bones with the bone tail of a snake exposued. They go over and destroy one of the eggs, but the other two move up the wall. The snake's tail disappears under the bones. The duo retreats.

The two oozes exit the well, clearly they are the Touch. One leaves the opposite direction down the streets while the other advancing. Pickles tries a Chill Touch on it, but it does nothing. That is when Cherlindrea's Wand speaks to him with temptations of using it. He obliges, which completely destroys the Touch. However, he gets another headache, and much like in Nanook City, his forehead morphs. A second eye, very small bud-like, forms beside his already bulbous, frog-like 3rd Eye, and the lesion under the eyes extends.

They return to the well, and Pickles spots the second Touch coming back into the center. He uses the wand on it again, and suddenly his forehead forms even more prominent of a face. This time the lesion mumbles and mutters but forms no words.

The Leshens retreat hastily as do the wolves after the blast, and the duo decide to enter the well again and face whatever is down there.

It's a Bone Naga, and after removing the blight with Chill Touch, they climb down there. With unbelievable skill and luck, Zaburk lands a nearly killing blow with his bow, and Pickles unleashes everything he has from the Witch's Bolt spell that was saved in his ring.

Having destroyed the naga, the curse that was inflicting the area was lifted. The Leshen retreat back into the woods and become docile again, the blight disappears as does the fungus rinig that surrounded the village. The growths on the wolves disappeared as well.

When they make it back to Pottleville, Baron the Bold has skipped down with a sack of gems he tricked the villagers into giving for false potions and ointments. He left in haste, however, and the bartender of the tavern they had first stopped by gave them a map the Baron had left in his room with "H.C." marked on a regional map. He agrees to 800 gold for bringing them the head of Baron the Bold plus another 200 gold if they can retrieve all of the stolen gems.

The bartender begins preparing them the best meal of their lives along with unlimited mead and ale for them while they stay.